POP CULTURE FINALS

psychology

The study of psychology has ubiquitous applications, meaning its researches can be applied to anyone regardless of culture.

And popular culture is no exception - it is often the primary source of information people have whenever they need to learn more about certain cultures.

Whenever one defines popular culture, the one (1) thing that is worth noting is about "what is trending," "what is hip," and "what is the latest."

What is largely overlooked, however, is that popular culture is also a phenomenon that reflects the values of certain cultures, which stems from the active participation of the people of those cultures.

it is defined as the scientific study of the mind and behavior, actively involved in studying and understanding the various mental processes, brain functions, and behavior of humans (Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences, n.d.).

This is the science that tackles the inner machinations of the human mind, how it operates.

As a "Hub Science," psychology has deep connections with medical sciences, social sciences, and education (Boyack, Klavans, & Borner, 2005).

popular culture

it is the accumulation of all its elements capable of sustaining and perpetuating itself based on the endorsement and participation of the people through their own volition

Queer Theory

The popular notion of popular culture is that only a few icons and trends remain relevant for a long time. Others just come and go. This is in a somewhat similar lens to the notion that stereotypes are being challenged constantly through the lens of queer theory,

Since popular culture is always changing, apart from being used to deliver messages designed to challenge issues about sexuality, it [popular culture] continually challenges the beliefs of people through the introduction of more flexible gender roles, representation, and standards. As such, films such as Brokeback Mountain, Die Beautiful, and The Panti Sisters reflect queer theory in different approaches to challenge the ever-changing norms in our society.

based on Theories for Self:

a new theory where ideas and identity categories that are considered as "hard set" (i.e., already existing) in established fields are constantly being scrutinized and challenged.

In this theory, there is no set normal - only changing views and norms that people can categorize (Illinois Library, 2021).

Archetypes

Many people think of archetypes in terms of a list of typical characters, like the hero, the goddess, the wise man, and so on. Such a list doesn't do enough to understand the ephemeral core concept. In Jung's words,

based on Theories for Self:

are things that have the same meanings in different cultures. They may show up in dreams, literature, art, or religion.

Jungian archetypes(Carl Jung came up with this idea)

this are images and themes that come from the collective unconscious.

archaic remnants(their deeper, instinctual sources)

these are the source of the archetypal images, not the conscious representations.

archetypes (particularly the character archetypes)

this help us quickly identify the motives and general personalities of different icons, especially in TV

shows, games, and films.

Father Archetype

If the Father is morally POSITIVE, then he is considered a CAPABLE AND PROTECTIVE LEADER.

Examples include Joe West (The Flash), Odin Allfather (MCU's Thor), and Gregory Peck (To Kill a Mockingbird).

· If the Father is morally NEGATIVE, then he is considered a DICTATOR- a man that is manipulative, cold, and with a grandiose vision of transcending beyond the material world.

Examples include Darth Vader (Star Wars), Wilson Fisk (MCU's Daredevil), and Marlon Brando (The Godfather).

this represents an authority figure - stern and powerful. Its moral alignment shall dictate how others perceive him.

Mother archetype

· If the Mother is morally POSITIVE, then she is considered a caring mother, full of love and acceptance.

She will defend anyone who hurt her loved ones with equal ferocity, if not more, as the morally good Father.

*

Examples include Mine-a (Encantadia), Katara (The Legend of Aang), and Melina Vostokoff (MCU's Black Widow).

*

· If the Mother is morally NEGATIVE, then she is the wicked mother, neglectful and conceited. She is stubborn and obsessive and will think of nothing else but to satisfy her own agendas.

*

Examples include Lady Tremaine (Cinderella), Mother Gothel (Rapunzel and Tangled), and Cersei Lannister (Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire).

*

it represents the well-known maternal instincts - nurturing and comforting.

Its moral alignment shall dictate how others perceive her.

Child archetype

If the Child is morally POSITIVE, then they are considered innocent, playful, and vivacious (i.e., cheerful).

They bring sunshine to someone's life because of their infectious cheerfulness.

Examples include Hyūga Hinata (Naruto), Scott Lang (MCU's Ant-man), and Santino (May Bukas Pa).

If the Child is morally NEGATIVE, then they are considered naïve, ignorant, and over-dependent.

They will never act on their own because they know someone else will provide for them.

Examples include Dudley Dursley (The Wizarding World), Joffrey Baratheon (Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire), and Jane (Twilight series).

it represents a person's views of children - full of innocence, renewed life, and salvation. Its moral alignment shall dictate how others perceive them.

Affect theory

Affects make us who we are, but they aren't always under our control or even in our awareness.

They can only sometimes be expressed in words.

In order to better understand power, Affect Theory tells people that they should think of power as a play.

Affect studies, which are mostly based on cultural studies, have been very interested in how emotions and feelings are formed in the social and cultural world.

Media and communication scholars, on the other hand, have paid a lot of attention to how emotions and feelings are made by media, how they are communicated through media, and what kinds of emotions people have when they use media.

based on Theories for Self:

it is a way to think about culture, history, and politics that looks at things that aren't words.

Michel Foucault's "analytics of power,"

it is the study of animal rights and secularism, and my own field, religious studies, are all topics that can be linked to affect theory.

Popular psychology

Popularized by authors such as Erich Fromm (read Escape from Freedom), Thomas Harris (read I'm OK - You're OK), and John Gray (read Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus), popular psychology allows a person to explore their mind and emotions.

In popular culture, hosts such as Oprah Winfrey and Phillip "Dr. Phil" McGraw popularized a form of therapy where guests make public confessions about a specific topic while guest specialists will listen and offer sound advice to them [guests]. Dubbed as "Oprahfication," it helped boost the rising popularity of popular psychology.

based on Theories for Self:

it is a term that describes any and all psychological ideologies, therapies, and other techniques that gained traction through media (Cuncic, 2021).

This is characterized by placing emphasis on personal feelings, the latest trends, testimonials, and self-help techniques.

Despite lacking any scientific validations, people flock to these because of the reasons stated above.

Identity Erosion or self-erosion

Self-erosion occurs because when a person is busy with something in their life, their sense of self begins to identify with the ones they poured themselves in (Vallejos, 2013) - which, in the case of popular culture, is being the "number one" fan of something. Should the icon fade, either the self-eroded fan would either lose their sense of purpose or move on to the "next big thing."

based on Theories for Self:

Perhaps the most worrisome aspect of popular culture is that the success of some icons and trends stems from the notion that some of the working class begin to lose themselves to the icons and/or trends they wholeheartedly follow, to the point of devotion. This can be caused by various factors, such as stress from work, being in incompatible relationships, or even simply going to school.

Tribalism

As an example, taking sorting quizzes to determine your house in Hogwarts (in the Wizarding World series) allows one to connect with people sharing the same results, forming an established "tribe" based on their perceived shared similarities.

based on Theories for Society:

it is a popular trend that is mostly based on false, stereotypical ideas about indigenous people, has become a big thing in pop culture.

People who want to be celebrities, pop princesses, or hipsters want tobes are dressing up as Native Americans and wear "war paint."

Culturalism

This is called "culturalism." It also says that cultures have special rights and protections, even if they break individual rights at the same time.

based on Theories for Society:

Individuals are shaped by their culture, and these cultures make up closed organic wholes.

The individual can't leave his or her culture but can only see himself or herself in it, not outside of it.

Marxism

Marxists have divided popular culture into two (2) groups...

Indeed, Marxist literature on culture has been split into two main groups: one that looks for and celebrates "authentic" grassroots culture, and the other that looks into how consumerism and the society of the spectacle make it easier for people to dominate culture.

As such, this is where countercultures stem from because Marxism, in theory, pushes people to challenge the established norms of certain cultural groups.

based on Theories for Society:

...those that people have made themselves, like folk art or stories, and those that were made for them, like commercial TV, advertising, arcade video games, and music. This is usually seen as a way to value the former, which are true expressions of mass creativity, and to devalue the latter, which are used to keep people calm and dominate culture.

Postmodernism (also known as post-structuralism)

Postmodernism is all about interpretation; reality is merely what we make of it.

Postmodernism emphasizes personal experience over abstract ideas, stating that personal experience is inherently imperfect and relative.

People who write about postmodernism agree that, no matter what else it is or might be, it has something to do with how popular culture changed in the late 20th century in the advanced capitalist democracies of the West in the last half of the century.

As a result, no matter how postmodernism is defined, popular culture is a place where these changes can be found the easiest. This is because popular culture is a place where these changes can be found the easiest.

based on Theories for Society:

it rejects universal explanations and instead focuses on the relative truths of each individual (i.e., postmodernism Equals relativism).

Genre theory

For example, Star Wars and Star Trek are situated in space, making it a good example of a Sci-Fi text. However, when we take a look at Passengers (starring Jennifer Lawrence and Christ Pratt), we can also consider it as an example of Sci-Fi but with a romance genre on the side, making it a Sci-Fi Romance movie. This briefly explains that texts are not just limited by conventional genres; rather, text can be a mix of conventional genres too.

The use of genre theory enables us to examine the type or style of the text in which helps us understand what the genre is all about. This theory sets conventions in which we can identify certain genres of text. For example, there are set of conventions for a text to be classified as thriller, drama, and comedy, among others.

based on The Critical Theories regarding Popular Culture:

it is derived from the French (and originally Latin) word for "kind" or "class" (Chandler, 1997).

Chandler (1997) explains that the concept of ________ is a creation of media artists in order to help them classify their works so that they can identify their target audience and better promote their work.

However, ______ ______ also indicates that genres might become overly confined to all of their norms, preventing them from being varied. Thus, Chandler argues that "Conventional definitions of the genre tend to be based on the notion that they

constitute particular conventions of content (such as themes or settings)."

Intersectionality

For example, a Filipina working and living abroad unknowingly got fired despite having a good performance might be an indication of unfair treatment because of her race and gender. In the context of intersectionality, this suggests that race and gender contributed to the social injustice the Filipina experienced. Thus, intersectionality teaches us to recognize our differences and work out how these distinctions will be expressed in the construction of a group's political identity.

based on The Critical Theories regarding Popular Culture:

Coined by American lawyer and professor Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989

it explains how individual characteristics such as race, class, and gender, among others, "intersect" with one another.

People often speak about racial inequalities as if they were different from other forms of discrimination like race, gender orientation, or immigration status.

However, people tend to overlook that an individual may possess all of these characteristics.

Fan theories

In the theory of participatory culture, instead of being tagged as "cultural dupes, social misfits, and mindless consumers," fans can be described as "active producers and manipulators of meaning" (Jenkins, 1992). This led to the constant evolution of hypertextual creations between fandoms such as fanfics, fan-films, remixes, and fan-subs.

An example of a fan theory is the concept of headcanon, a form of discourse where a fan shares the probable origin or cause of something despite the lack of evidence in a source material, which the author had unintentionally or deliberately left behind for theory- crafting.

As an example, the video game Doki Doki Literature Club is a game riddled with seemingly different pieces of evidence that point to a larger story, which is prime material for theory-crafting

based on The Critical Theories regarding Popular Culture:

these are interpretations of work by fans that are debated, compared, and shared in various fan communities.

They forecast or deduce future content, explain particular occurrences, or provide other viewpoints.

These interpretations are supported by strong reasoning and specific references to official materials, such as literary excerpts, frames, or information from other media (Amo & Roca, 2021)

headcanon

it is a form of discourse where a fan shares the probable origin or cause of something despite the lack of evidence in a source material, which the author had unintentionally or deliberately left behind for theory- crafting.

Semiotics

Since there are several concepts in the study of signs, depending on the tradition, it may be called semiology in the Saussurean tradition and semiotics in Peircean tradition.

it is simply defined as the study of signs.

Semiotics by Saussure

Swiss linguist and semiotician, Ferdinand de Saussure

based on The Semiotic Approaches to Popular Culture

it offers a dyadic or two-part model of the study of signs

signifier (signifiant)

the signifier is commonly construed to be the material form of the sign. For example, if a shop has a sign with words written as 'closed,' the signifier will be the letters 'c-l-o-s-e-d,' and the signified concept is that the shop is closed for business.

it serves as the material or physical form of the sign (something that a person can see, hear, touch, smell, or taste)

it is a form that the sign takes

signified (signifi)

the signifier is commonly construed to be the material form of the sign. For example, if a shop has a sign with words written as 'closed,' the signifier will be the letters 'c-l-o-s-e-d,' and the signified concept is that the shop is closed for business.

it is the mental concept of the sign, which is purely 'psychological.

it is the concept the sign represents.

Semiotics by Peirce

During the same time that Saussure was formulating his model of sign, American pragmatist philosopher and logician Charles Sanders Peirce was working with his own model of sign, 'semiotic or semiosis,' and the taxonomies of signs.

While Saussure offers a dyadic model, Peirce offered a triadic model

In Peirce's model of signs, he gave an example of which the traffic sign for 'stop' would consist of:

Representamen: red-light facing traffic at an intersection

Interpretant: the idea that the red light indicates that the vehicles must stop.

Object: vehicles halting

based on The Semiotic Approaches to Popular Culture

offers a triadic model, which consists of:

Representamen: The form which the sign takes (but not necessarily material);

Interpretant: the sense made of the sign (not an interpreter)

Object: to which the sign refers.

Semiotics by Barthes

French writer, literary theory, philosopher, critic, and semiotician Roland Barthes

based on The Semiotic Approaches to Popular Culture

proposed the idea that there are distinct levels of signification (levels of meaning).

The first level of signification is the denotation, where a sign is made up of a signifier and a signified.

Connotation is a second-order signification that employs the initial sign (signifier and signified) as its signifier and adds an extra signified to it.

denotation

denotative meaning of a white dove is a small breed of seed or fruit-eating bird (pigeon) that is commonly domesticated. Its connotative meaning, meanwhile, can be a new beginning, love, peace, prosperity, and fidelity, among others.

a sign is made up of a signifier and a signified.

refers to the definitional (dictionary definition) or literary meaning of a sign

Connotation

denotative meaning of a white dove is a small breed of seed or fruit-eating bird (pigeon) that is commonly domesticated. Its connotative meaning, meanwhile, can be a new beginning, love, peace, prosperity, and fidelity, among others.

is a second-order signification that employs the initial sign (signifier and signified) as its signifier and adds an extra signified to it.

refers to the socio- cultural and personal association of the sign.

multimodality

In a way, every communication is multimodal since meaning is formed not just via words but also through fonts, pictures, page design, and so on.

Multimodality has grown even more important in the digital era, particularly for language learners who rely on many channels to "pick up" meaning in a target language.

based on The Semiotic Approaches to Popular Culture

refers to the use of various sensory and communication channels to convey meaning in a message.

linguists study not only language but also visual features and elements such as images, color, the layout of pages, and even material objects and architecture.

Recontextualization

Machine and Mayr (2012) defined that "recontextualization always involves transformation, and what exactly gets transformed depends on the interests, goals, and values of the context into which the practice is recontextualized."

- deletion

- addition

- substitution

- evaluation

based on The Semiotic Approaches to Popular Culture

This indicates that in some texts, when some elements are changed, replaced, removed, or simplified, there is a presumed idea that __________________________ has taken place.

Deletion

E.g., On war monuments of World War I, the monuments erected in Europe mention 'giving' and 'sacrifice' and do not mention pain, suffering, or insanity.

This is the process wherein some aspects are deleted in any social practice (such as people, action, setting, etc.) as no representations in social practice can represent all the aspects of it.

Addition

E.g., On the war monuments mentioned earlier, the materials used to add meanings such as solidity and timelessness. Some elements and symbols are also added that link the

monument to some ancient rites that suggest that the event is historical and spiritual.

This is the process where elements were added to represent the text even further.

Substitution

E.g., On war monuments, the soldiers are not life-like figures but often larger than usual. The acts of killing were substituted by the act of slowly walking forward or standing solidly on guard.

This is the process wherein there are changes or rearrangements by abstractions and generalizations in order to represent events or texts accordingly.

Evaluation

E.g., On war monuments, people find their poses in high ideals and values. The monuments can also imply that the country will not forget the heroism of those who sacrificed during WWI.

This is the process where the events and people are generalized in the text.